The Observer.
"Dream Scenario," "The Studio," "Ash Is Purest White," "Deli Boys," "The Accountant," and more thoughts on TV+Film.
The Observer is a spoiler-free curated collection of television series and films.
I’m debating whether to search for a cool graphic element that will spotlight television series and films that have achieved a level of quality and people are probably talking about and then slap that on here somewhere as a visual heads up, an icon that sends a signal to your brain: “hey you should be watching this.”
Or, I mean, I could just keep telling you. With words. I’ll meditate on it.
There are a lot of intriguing series already launched or coming soon, but having seen “The Studio” and “Deli Boys” all the way through, that’s where I would double-down on maximizing your watchlist.
While “The Studio” isn’t everyone’s thing, because there’s a lot to cringe at, it remains absolutely en fuego with its send up of Hollywood. My biggest worry as I was watching it unfold was whether it could sustain its ambitions, and at the top of my concerns was the constant, record-shattering use of celebrity cameos.
But it ended up having very few moments where I took any pause. There’s an upcoming mini-arc with a celeb that works fine but, in comparison to the other cameos, it felt a little flat to me. Near the end of the season there’s a wildly over the top episode but its success comes from the show never talking a foot off the gas pedal in the episode and leaning even harder into it. I ended up watching that episode twice just to move beyond the first-time visceral reaction to a more studied look at it and, yep, it still worked.
But one thing that has to be said about “The Studio” as you follow its story, is there’s an almost too-big-to-fail element at play, with all the cameos and the fact you can almost see the AppleTV+ dollars wafting through the scenes. Some might diminish its achievement noting that. But I could also argue that very all-in recipe makes pulling off a creative season even more difficult — with cynicism and bar both being high among doubters.
It’s helpful to remember such things when you compare two different but really strong series, like Hulu’s “Deli Boys.” Which I’ll do shortly.
But first, two wildly different film diversions.
